News & Press

Champion Honored for Communication Efforts By Conway Center for Family Business

WESTERVILLE, OH –Champion Real Estate Services took home an award for its company-wide communication efforts at the Conway Center for Family Business Awards luncheon. The annual reception for Central Ohio family-owned businesses was held at the Aladdin Shrine Center on Friday, November 7.

The award recognized one large and one small family-owned business for their development of tools and strategies for effective communication. Champion, with 75 team members, was honored as the 2014 large family-owned business winner.

“We were thrilled to be honored in the communication category as we have made company communication a primary focus in the last couple of years,” said Michelle Yeager-Thornton, co-founder and COO of Champion. “Our business employs 75 team members who work at 14 different offices around Central Ohio, which can make it challenging to keep everyone on the same page.”

Champion was founded in 2010 by Yeager-Thornton and her brother Brian Yeager, and has grown exponentially each year, landing in the Top 10 of the Columbus Business First Fast 50 list three years in a row since 2011.
“Being family-owned and operated, it is important to us to create a close-knit, family-like environment for Champion team members,” said Brian Yeager, Champion’s president and CEO. “The only way we can make that happen with the growth Champion has experienced is with fluid and constant communication with all of our team members.”

After surveying its team members at the end of 2012, Champion found that internal communications was an area that needed improved upon. The company set out to find better ways to communicate with its staff as well as discover unique ways to bring its team together.

“We went to the drawing board and brainstormed a few different initiatives that we felt would allow our team members to spend time together, as well as give us an opportunity to communicate with the team as a whole,” Yeager-Thornton said. “As a result, we started sending out a monthly internal e-newsletter and holding smaller group operations meetings.”

The most successful initiative the company has created is its quarterly vision meetings, which brings together the entire Champion team for a meeting where leadership can discuss company accomplishments, current goals and objectives and forecast where Champion is headed in the future.

The Conway Center for Family Business Awards Program was established in 1999 to celebrate the success of family businesses in Central Ohio and is attended by more than 400 Central Ohio community and family business leaders. The other award categories included: Community Engagement, Lifetime Achievement, Milestone Achievement, Re-Invention, Succession Planning/Implementation and Support of a Family Business.

About Champion Real Estate Services

Founded in 2010, Champion is a privately-held, fully-integrated, multi-family real estate firm. Champion is family-owned and operated and specializes in investment management, property management and investment sales in Central Ohio. Champion currently manages more than 4,100 apartments across 15 communities in the growing cities of Canal Winchester, Delaware, Dublin, Gahanna, Grove City, Hilliard, Lewis Center (Polaris), New Albany, Powell and Westerville. Champion has been recognized three years in a row as one of Central Ohio’s fastest growing companies by Columbus Business First’s Fast 50 list, ranking third in 2012, fifth in 2013 and ninth in 2014.